A Special Kind of Lonesome
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Elephant Tusk Trail is one of the least utilized designated paths in the Big Bend National Park system, and this lack of use shows in the dilapidated condition it is found in these days. Even some of the cairns…
Three Lonely Bells Toll
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Through the decades of my wanderings, I have become somewhat known for being able to find two things; water and graves. In that I suppose there is a binding connection as the two represent the opposite bookends in this…
A Lonesome Land of Unexpected Surprises and Occasional Tricks
Where the ponies come to drink…
I’ll Never See It All
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Stink Spring has been dry for several decades, nothing more now than a brush infested run with some decaying horse troughs amid rusting sections of water pipe. At one time the spring was important enough to be fenced…
Almost Another Planet
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: It was a crisp December morning when this photograph was taken, with the promise of a nigh perfect day for a long prowl through the Mule Ears area. Directly ahead was the large, golden-leafed cottonwood marking Trap Spring, though…
The Struggle to Keep Living
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: There is not a single square mile in this country that does not present a challenge of some sort, and often enough more than one. From the jungle-like brush thickets found in the mouths of large arroyos along the…
Channeling My Inner Captain Ahab
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Like gigantic mythical sea serpents encased in an ocean of sand, dirt, rock and cacti, lava vents run across the face of this country, traveling hither and yon in every direction. These natural anomalies, sometimes bordering on the surreal,…
Where the Old Feet Trod
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: When many people first come to this country, they tend to believe it is a young land mostly untouched and undiscovered by man. Something inherent to the desert and these mountains excite the imagination, causing one to feel as…
Don’t Let Darwinism Get You
SOMEWHERE IN THE LOWER BIG BEND: Like the body of a giant serpent moving to and fro on a north-south axis, Ernst Valley stretches from the river all the way to the southern slopes of Telephone Canyon. Calling it a ‘valley’ is somewhat of a…